Coffee 10-13-2012

Good morning! Ohhh, tis a chilly one this morning. I'm showing 24*. I'll bet it's even colder outside!! Ohhhh, I slay me. Well, The coffee is hot and it smells like cinnamon buns are cooking. Nothing like sugar to perk up a breakfast. What do you say we scramble up some eggs and have a good meal?

Is everybody burning coal right now? I'll bet!

It's looking like Uncle Billy will be moving in with us next Friday. It'll be a change for us, but an even bigger change for him. He's been in the same place for about 40 years now. It's got to be hard to grip the idea of leaving, knowing that you won't be going back. I called Dish TV yesterday & ordered an upgrade so Bill will have his Boston sports. This will mean we get the new "hopper" receiver. I guess we just keep it full of coal & it'll let us record 6 things at once. What times we live in! Amazing technology to be able to record and control what you see on TV so easily. Also, to pause live TV....it's cool! That's the one thing that spoils you in a hurry. I'll tell ya, I've never thought paying for TV was worth the price, but to be able to pause live shows.... now that's worth the price. The whole DVD thing...it's SO superior to a VCR. Example: Last night we were watching a show and we realized we wanted to re-watch the last minute of last weeks show. Within seconds I went back, found the show, fast forwarded to the end and we saw the part we wanted. Try that with a VCR! It would take 20 minutes, not 20 seconds, that is if you could even find last weeks show on a VCR!

Uh, ohhh, I'm rambling... let's eat!

Mornin all.Outstanding coffee as usual Freddy. Thanx, goes real good with them, thar cinny buns Ya know, if we all continue to slay ourselves, we're going to get real short handed around here. As far as that cable/ sattelite stuff goes, since all the kids have left a few yrs back, I've been on antenna watch--I get 12 channels--all the local, all PBS and any sports that are out there---total monthly cost---wait for it-----$0.00. BUT---always the big BUT--Uncle Billy will appreciate it & you & Marty can do with a lil spoiling. 22* on the hill this AM--a nice toasty 72 in the old homestead with the Hitzer on idle. Gonna put a new rim on the 8N today at some point. Yesterday we had some snowin, blowin, sleet, hail & what ever else it was doing for about 1/2 an hour--things to come I'm sure. Have a good week-end all

Coffee, cinnamon buns, and eggs...what a way to start the day! 28 degrees next to the lake, first frost of the season for us. I still need to do some work balancing the heat on the first floor...my laptop is right over the EFM and it is 74 in here.

Lots of people "striking the match this week", some left their heating plant just the way it was, others made improvements, and a few guys have entered the world of stoker boilers. My brother's house is completely finished OUTSIDE, and the crew is all working inside from here on out. No central heat yet, so dad's Hitzer 82 (sitting in basement since the EFM arrived) got the nod for the new house. 4000 sq. ft including the basement, no insulation in the ceilings yet...but the stove still has everyone down to t-shirts.

There's frost here this morning for the fourth time this month. Certainly different from last year. Depending upon which Internet weather site I look at we are somewhere between 28 and 34 degrees around here right now. My laser thermometer says it's 29.4 degrees on the front porch bricks. The bacon is frying and the coffee is brewing. Time to go let the chickens and the duck out.

Freddy I still own a VCR. One of the last ones in MA I think. Not sure if I need to be licensed to own one .... I'll have to check with MA state legislature, maybe buy 5 permits or so. I like to be able to record something and have it forever -- like right now is a perfect time to record history in the making in our political world, so that future generations aren't duped by our dishonest media .... but I digress - it's too early to get into all that!

Nice wheels Fred!

First frost here in MA - 27.7° right now. Stoked up the stove with 4 loads of particle board before we went to bed (was going out when I hit the hay). House was hot - 72°. 8 hours later, it was 63°. Just can't compare coal to wood.

Progress is VERY slow on the Blazer engine. Like everything I seem to touch lately, it just gets all f'ed up. Spent an hour trying to get the harmonic balancer on without the installer tool. Pounding on the end of the crank is never a good idea, but after the center bolt yanked the threads out while trying to use IT as the installer tool, I had no choice. It's about 1/4" away from being home, and I had to give up and drop $75 on the damn tool anyway. Then, I discovered that HV oil pump just isn't going to fit. Had less than 5/16" clearance between the screen and pan .... so all that went back to the store, and I ordered up a stocker. I had a feeling ....

Yesterday I installed the rear main seal. OF course that got frigged up as well!! The rubber began to peel from the core as I installed it ... so I yanked it out, super-glued the rubber back on, loaded it up with Ultra Copper, then pounded it in. Didn't want to wait a week for a return, as I ordered it from Summit. It's going to leak. I know it ..... so once this thing is all done, I'm going to fire it up on the stand before putting the engine back in. Can't get a damn break!!!!!

In between all that, my ballasts finally arrived (YAAAY!), and the rest of the peel n stick came in as well. Had to lose a day installing all of that - 5 hours up on the roof again, and a half hour to install the ballast. I'll update my ballast thread on that front. Check out the bat vid from the roof.

Got another load of OSB burnin hot right now, trying to get the house above 63°. Gonna be a while ....

Jeez Smitty, I have a balancer installation tool somewhere out in the shop that you could have borrowed for just shipping. Also, put the balancer in a pot of boiler water for 15 minutes or so...it will expand enough to slide on much easier.

I would replace that seal...it will stay dry on the stand, and leak once installed in the Blazer. Lube the seal and crank with engine oil when you install it.

Instructions that came with the seal say explicitly NOT to oil the seal OR the crank. It's PTFE ... not sure what difference that makes. Fel-Pro.

SMITTY wrote:Instructions that came with the seal say explicitly NOT to oil the seal OR the crank. It's PTFE ... not sure what difference that makes. Fel-Pro.

The last one I installed called for oil...I guess Fel-Pro has their own ideas. They probably don't want oil getting around the outside of the seal and causing a leak between the seal and housing.

I hear ya - every single seal I've ever installed in my life always got grease on the lip. I do that with all seals on bikes - fork seals, crank seals, etc ... Strange. Came with a big plastic installation tool in the middle of the seal to hold it open for installation. The seal slides off this plastic ring and onto the crank - probably how they get away with the lack of lube.

lest we forget....... you took this thing out because of a oil leak.........

fug get a bout the pfte.... get a regular seal and as you mate it to the crank, use a straight pick as a "shoe" horn and roll it around the crank thus getting that lip over the crank....

then bang the hell out of it with the FORD hammer

fords always leak so they take a pretty good banging....

sure its the right one? usually when they have the install ring they are for a diesel application..... they suck

It's definitely the right one. I actually called corporate because the seal was stamped "National", with a GM part # ... I thought I got the old "swapped parts" deals that usually happens at Wal-Mart, or chain parts stores in the city ...

Welp, more money down the toilet, yet again .....

Good morning coal burning friends,cinnamon buns are great but you keep the eggs,Fred the best thing with DVR's is you can skip the BS,not burning yet 36* this morning and 60*s this weekend the lake is keeping us warm but it will soon be time to turn the Harmony nut into ash .Mr Freetown how does the other rim look .Another camping season is in the books and it was a good one I could have done without the heat but it's Ok the best trip was the 4th of July week in beautiful Pine Grove PA,(putting my old Ford to the test pulling the hills in PA It has 300K on it It's rusting like crazy but runs better then new with a 110hp chip for the last 200k most of the OEM driveline parts including the clutch never had the valve covers off yet it still gets 17 mpg at 9,000 lbs empty and 10+mpg when grossing 20,000+ lbs it went down to 9 on the PA Trunpike running 70mph)went to Hershey Park,Pottsville and everyplace in between but I did stay out of the breakers because I would have tried to put a load of coal in the 5th wheel but the best part was the stop in Shanksville to pay my respects it's real sobering to be there in person rather then seeing it on TV or the internet well worth the stop,well I have to run take care
Keepaeyeonit

I hear ya. it is a sad thing....

you can heli coil the crank if ya need

Always something around here! I'll probably just buy a new bolt at the hardware store. I know I don't have a Time-Sert that's SAE -- all my stuff's metric for the bikes.

Maybe I'll MAKE it metric!

Oh yeahhhh.... Coffee is goood! DVC500 is running to keep the chill out of the house.

What a week...
My wife's cat has always been a great guard dog... Attacking ANYTHING that comes too near our house. Other cats, skunks, dogs, ANYTHING. Well Monday morning the cat shows up on the backporch for her breakfast as usual, except we notice her mouth appears to be WIDE open all the time. Upon examination, ALL the skin/flesh/muscle from her lips/chin/lower jaw has been ripped off and is just hanging fron her neck. We figured she tangled with a big rat, weasel or possum, and got wooped bad.
The good news is her teeth and jawbone and tongue are all intact, and she just started eating her food as if nothing was wrong. After she ate, my wife took her up to the vets to have her lips/chin/neck stitched back in place. The vet said that could not be done, as there was no flesh left on the jaw to stitch the flap to. UNLESS we wanted to pay about $1000 for some kind of fancey surgury. Even my wife said "No way, how much to put her down". SO then the vet says it might grow back on its own, and gave us a bottle of aneseptic spray to keep it clean. As long as she is eating, the doc says all is ok.
But it looks as bad as it sounds. I won't even post a pic of it.

Freddy... I agree with F_Fred... LIttle tiny anntena pointed towards Raliegh (65 miles away) gives us 30 some-odd free channels with all the majors. I could prolly watch the Andy Griffith Show 24 hours a day, in reruns.

Nice Shiney new rim thar, F_fred. Hit those bolts with PB_Blaster a day before ya yank em out?

Rob, is your brother building his own house? or is it contracted out? Great idea keeping it warm with coal. That'll make the interior work get done soooo much faster.

Smitty, i agree that the seal should be replaced now. I know, it bites, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. My brother says those new seals with the expansion ring are easy to install? Any idea why this one tore?
I use Time Certs too, and like you, they are all metric. I love them! They work fantastic!